Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (1533–1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 until her death and the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, she endured an uncertain youth and was briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London during the reign of her half-sister, Mary I. Her accession at 25 began a reign of 44 years marked by stability and growing national confidence. Her religious settlement of 1559 gave the Church of England a lasting form, and in 1588 England repelled the Spanish Armada, a year remembered for her speech to the troops at Tilbury. Her age saw a flowering of drama and poetry, with William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Edmund Spenser, and voyages such as Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the globe. Known as "Gloriana" and "Good Queen Bess," she remains a symbol of English national identity.
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The Tudor Age
Thomas More served Henry VIII as Lord Chancellor but refused, for reasons of conscience, to accept the king as head of the English church. Henry's daughter Elizabeth I presided over a flourishing of English culture and seafaring: Sir Francis Drake sailed around the world, Edmund Spenser dedicated The Faerie Queene to her, and William Shakespeare's first plays reached the London stage.
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Queens Who Shaped History
Boudica, queen of the Iceni, led a great uprising against Roman rule in Britain around AD 60. Isabella I of Castile helped unite Spain and sponsored the voyage of Columbus, and Elizabeth I's long reign saw England flourish in exploration and the arts. Catherine the Great expanded Russia and championed learning, and Queen Victoria reigned for nearly 64 years over a vast empire.
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